Bristol City Football Club manager, Nigel Pearson has heaped praises on Ghana’s attacker Antoine Semenyo for his professionalism.
He described the attacker as a a really honest player, honest person and believes the boy is dealing well with all he can but admitted speculation can be unsettling.
According to him, the Ghana International has remained calm and professional despite a hosts of clubs chasing for his signature.
“You’ll be aware of lots of stories that have been out there,” Pearson said. “The clubs have received offers for Antoine and enquiries about other players but as we sit right now, there’ll be nothing happening this week. Whether that will change next week remains to be seen. Antoine will be in the squad for tomorrow.
“He gets absolute clarity from us and, as his manager, I’ve had many conversations with him right the way through from the summer with him being injured, build up to the World Cup and, of course, speculation about the window.
“I’m as transparent as I can be, I always keep him up to speed with how I see the situation and we see it as a football club. We try and be as open as possible but, of course, one of the factors that people don’t always necessarily take account of, in the way it really works, is the feelings of the player so it’s difficult for young players, who are ambitious when there is, not just speculation, but actual, real interest and there has been.
“We’ve received offers of a fashion from Bournemouth and Burnley too. And there is speculation about other clubs. It can be potentially very unsettling for players and that’s why I very much believe in being as frank and open as possible.
“Antoine is a young man who’s had a pretty good couple of years now, on a personal level in terms of breaking into the side and showing not just potential but his ability to perform at a very good level. The one thing he’s working harder to do now is scoring more goals and, like many forwards, he’ll go through spells of achieving that but even when he’s not doing that he’s still a real handful.
“We know we’ve got a talent in Antoine at the club but we need to protect our interests as a football club and if we get to a point where a deal is accepted that it’s done in the right way. Until that point, Antoine is our player.
“What I would say about him is he’s a really honest player, honest person and he’s dealing with it as well as he can but speculation can be unsettling.”
